___The travel validity period of a green card is one year – this means that both legal permanent residents and conditional residents (hereafter “residents”) can be outside of the United States for up to one year without having to file any additional paperwork to get back in. The issue arises when a resident will be out of the country for longer than one year. In this circumstance, the resident faces a risk of denial of admission back into the U.S. on the grounds of having abandoned his or her permanent resident status.

_ Earlier this afternoon, President Obama issued an executive order establishing visa and foreign visitor processing goals and the task force on travel and competitiveness.In this executive order, President Obama called attention to the fact that in the last decade, the U.S. has had more than a 30 percent decrease in share of the global market. The President called for more efficient and new initiatives to better enable the U.S. to capitalize on economic opportunities presented by the travel and tourism industry.

Perhaps, however, the most significant portion of this executive order lies in the President's address of immigration in the U.S.

_The USCIS has extended an invitation for attendance at the first national Chinese language public engagement at the San Francisco Field Office on Thursday, February 16, 2012. The engagement will be held between 10:30AM - 12:00PM (Pacific Standard Time). The USCIS has termed the engagement as a "Jiao Liu" - meaning "engagement" in Chinese. It is a combined effort for the USCIS to engage directly with customers to provide information and feedback regarding benefits and services.

Each Jiao Liu will focus on a specific immigration topic and includes a Q&A session with USCIS officials. For the first Jiao Liu on February 16th, the session will be focused on the naturalization process and becoming a U.S. citizen.

Participation is available via teleconference or life web stream. In addition, USCIS officials and subject matter experts who are fluent in both Mandarin and Catonese will facilitate the event. The following are ways to participate in the Jiao Liu: